Advertisement

GOP candidate in disputed North Carolina House race won’t run in special election

Mark Harris, the Republican candidate in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District race, is not running again.
(Travis Long / AP)
Share via

A special election to fill the country’s last undetermined congressional race will take place without the North Carolina Republican who used a political operative accused of election fraud.

In a statement, Mark Harris said Tuesday he’s skipping the upcoming redo election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District for health reasons. Harris says he needs surgery that’s scheduled for late March.

He did not mention the scandal over alleged election fraud.

Harris last week stopped a state elections board hearing into ballot fraud by declaring he couldn’t continue to testify. He cited health problems caused by a blood infection that required hospitalization and led to two strokes.

Advertisement

The elections board ordered a new contest after evidence that a Harris operative may have illegally collected mail-in ballots. Harris narrowly led Democrat Dan McCready after November’s election, but the outcome was never certified.

Advertisement